The role of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in the administration of justice in criminal cases in the context of global challenges of our time

Judicial practice is analyzed in the application of novels: acts enshrined in Art. 207.1 and 207.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, a global challenge of our time, the amendment of Part 1 of Art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in connection with this problem. It is noted that the legislator has shifted the focus of public danger to the stage of threat in the construction of the objective side of a number of crimes, which raises questions of law enforcement from the standpoint of the criminal process. This led to research interest in the problem of proving the presence of such elements of crime. The analysis is preceded by a brief digression into the solution of a number of legislative problems by the forces of the highest judicial body – the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

In the process of writing the article, more than 30 convictions for the crimes in question were studied. At the same time, the authors were also interested in the issues of the features of proving the presence of a “threat”, and the points of proof related to the interpretation in resolving the issue of qualifying an act: as a misdemeanor or as a crime under similar circumstances.

The authors mention the foreign experience of qualifying acts on the spread of coronavirus infection on the example of the criminal law of Great Britain and the United States. Of interest are the elements of crimes on criminal liability in terms of qualifying threats of the spread of viruses and diseases and the assessment of certain actions of individuals as a threat to the spread of diseases and / or a terrorist threat.

Since the courts are called upon to check the correctness and legality of the application of the rules of law and often they have to fill in the gaps through interpretation and enforcement, the authors conclude that it is necessary to clarify the analyzed norms and the procedure for law enforcement in the context of the massive spread of coronavirus infection by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in the next decision.